[rdsreference]

Just installed the firmware update for the 901. Was working perfectly before hand now its a disaster. I first installed the balanced card due to the original amp card sounding terrible or not sounding at all this was after 3 weeks of owning a non listenable 901 I'm so frustrated right now does anybody know of any other reason this device May not sound like it should as this just doesn't sound like a 1000 pound player. why didn't I buy the AK 120, really regretting it now.

 

[Trogdor]

Just installed the firmware update for the 901. Was working perfectly before hand now its a disaster. I first installed the balanced card due to the original amp card sounding terrible or not sounding at all this was after 3 weeks of owning a non listenable 901 I'm so frustrated right now any other reason this just doesn't sound like a 1000 pound player, why didn't I buy the AK 120, really regretting it now.

What happened?

 

[rdsreference]

Icon spinning around in the top right hand corner. Maybe it will sort itself in time.sounds ok but my portable amp and smartphone has better bass extension.

 

[glockhit]

My HM 901 has been giving me problems since purchased over four weeks ago. Even though I formatted my flash card to fat32 it didn't recognize it. It did finally install the new firmware 1.081 after five or six attempts of rebooting. It will recognize the flash card with my flac files sometimes and sometimes it doesn't.  Also after an hour or so it reverses the channels. My right channel becomes the left channel. If I do a reboot it corrects this for about an hour again. It gets pretty hot during that hour. My HM801 would get warm but not this hot from what I recall. Are the vents on the HM901 for visual appeal because they don't seem to be doing anything.I really don't understand why the balanced amp would cause this much excess heat. I'm beginning to question if the problems with the HM901 are software or hardware issues and whether or not it is ready for the retail market yet.I will be exchanging this for a new one next week. I am hoping the replacement doesn't have any issues. Also curious to know if these issues affect the majority of these on the market.   

 

[AnakChan]

  My HM 901 has been giving me problems since purchased over four weeks ago. Even though I formatted my flash card to fat32 it didn't recognize it. It did finally install the new firmware 1.081 after five or six attempts of rebooting. It will recognize the flash card with my flac files sometimes and sometimes it doesn't.  Also after an hour or so it reverses the channels. My right channel becomes the left channel. If I do a reboot it corrects this for about an hour again. It gets pretty hot during that hour. My HM801 would get warm but not this hot from what I recall. Are the vents on the HM901 for visual appeal because they don't seem to be doing anything.I really don't understand why the balanced amp would cause this much excess heat. I'm beginning to question if the problems with the HM901 are software or hardware issues and whether or not it is ready for the retail market yet.I will be exchanging this for a new one next week. I am hoping the replacement doesn't have any issues. Also curious to know if these issues affect the majority of these on the market.   

 
When I had problems with my HM-901 it was because I was on a dodgy version of the 1.074 which attempted to support CUE files, and I had non-music files on my SDCard (.<MacOS Files>, jpg, cue, etc.). Cleaning those files out allowed the HM-901 to read the SDCard reliably.
 
Only then I could put in the 1.074NOCUE firmware which made reading SDCards with other non-music files on there more reliably. I've since moved on to 1.080 and now 1.081beta and haven't had any SDCard issues.
 
I've never ever had my channels reversed with the HM-901 from day 1 of owning it. Is this repeatable consistently?
 
I have mentioned in this thread about the HM-901's heat generation too. The vents do actually ventilate 'cos the HM-901 gets a lot warmer when I put it into a protector case. However this DAP does sport 2xES9018 DAC chips which are usually (at least historically) used for desktop DACs until iBasso put an ES9018 chip into it's DX100 DAP (which also runs warm, and that's with 1xES9018). ESS Tech has since announced a low power version of the ES9018-2M for mobiles.

 

[kkcc]

Don't use FAT32 for SDXC cards. That is a workaround for players who don't natively support SDXC. FAT32 formatted SDXC cards had been linked to a number of issues reported by various 901 owners.

 

[glockhit]

Yes the reverse channel issue is consistent. With the base amp in normal mode and the balanced amp in balanced mode. Don't believe the flash card I used was an SDXC card. I'll check when I get back home. I really wish I knew what is causing the channels to reverse when the HM901 warms up and why a reboot corrects it for an hour approx each time.
Thank you both for your input.

 

[rdsreference]

I reckon an eq could possibly fix some of the 901,s sonic shortcomings. I don't think you can ever get exactly what your looking for in terms of treble/bass/midrange and a lot of the time it's down to personal preference but certainly bass extension is lacking on my unit. I wonder like the 801 will an eq be offered with future firmware versions and with the wi fi server feature or maybe my unit still just isn't right and I need a replacement.I have to agree with other owners they should have made sure all these bugs were sorted and first and d.s.d playback and the wi fi feature were on it ready to go, I can guarantee if you compare the 901 to it's Korean rival there are fewer problems to report.

 

[kkcc]

I reckon an eq could possibly fix some of the 901,s sonic shortcomings. I don't think you can ever get exactly what your looking for in terms of treble/bass/midrange and a lot of the time it's down to personal preference but certainly bass extension is lacking on my unit. I wonder like the 801 will an eq be offered with future firmware versions and with the wi fi server feature or maybe my unit still just isn't right and I need a replacement.I have to agree with other owners they should have made sure all these bugs were sorted and first and d.s.d playback and the wi fi feature were on it ready to go, I can guarantee if you compare the 901 to it's Korean rival there are fewer problems to report.

Lol dsd wifi etc weren't even advertised features.... and what exactly about bass extension are you talking about? Compared to what for which iems hps gave you that conclusion? Negative opinions or criticizing a product is all good and helpful when they are given proper context. Sweeping generic statements are like BS.

Just my 2c

 

[kkcc]

Yes the reverse channel issue is consistent. With the base amp in normal mode and the balanced amp in balanced mode. Don't believe the flash card I used was an SDXC card. I'll check when I get back home. I really wish I knew what is causing the channels to reverse when the HM901 warms up and why a reboot corrects it for an hour approx each time.
Thank you both for your input.

You may also want to check with hifiman or your dealer re the channel switching issue if firmware didn't help. I recall reading a similar case in Chinese forum where the owner was very emotional about it, but then next day he said he cannot reproduce the issue. I would have asked for an exchange just to feel more secure as I don't think I can live with a unit that would suddenly swap channels.

Hope it works out for you.

 

[rdsreference]

kkcc..This is a public forum where your entitled to express your opinion I did just that whether these features were advertised or not is totally irrelevant. The DSD feature is on it now albeit in beta and the wi feature is coming maybe you may have a perfect device but mine certainly isn't going to give mine another 20+ hours to burn in the balanced card. My concerns are valid.

 

[kkcc]

kkcc..This is a public forum where your entitled to express your opinion I did just that whether these features were advertised or not is totally irrelevant. The DSD feature is on it now albeit in beta and the wi feature is coming maybe you may have a perfect device but mine certainly isn't going to give mine another 20+ hours to burn in the balanced card. My concerns are valid.

For me, it matters.

Advertised features not working - bugs
Additional/experimental/bonus/beta feature not working - not bugs as they aren't part of the deal in the first place.

Guess we can agree to disagree.

 

[glockhit]

I notified Headirect and they don't have a solution. To try and analyze it would drive me nuts. I'm just chalking it up as a defective player and will return it for an exchange.

 

[glockhit]

Don't use FAT32 for SDXC cards. That is a workaround for players who don't natively support SDXC. FAT32 formatted SDXC cards had been linked to a number of issues reported by various 901 owners.

 
I checked the card I used it was a SanDisk SDHC (4) 8GB to copy the new firmware. And no I didn't unzip the file.

 

[AnakChan]

glockhit, I was going to suggest to ensure the amp module is properly inserted too. I seem to recall some other poster having some problem (but not channel switching though) and it was due to the amp module dislodging itself and making an intermittent connection.
 
Edit: Also does this channel switching occur with every other headphone you have? I assume all your headphones are single ended? The reason I'm asking is that the headphone socket is a TRRS (R-,L-,R+,L+). I'm not certain how balanced and SE wiring is done with the same single TRRS socket but I'm just wondering if your Single Ended headphone jack may have some misconnection with that socket.
 
On the opposite side of the coin, I know that with some of my TRRS 3.5mm SE headphones (TRRS cos it's got the microphone control), I get channel cutouts with some 3.5mm SE sockets.